DIY Religion...Nah

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Ephesians 2:8-9

We live in a DIY world. There are DIY television shows, books and YouTube videos for just about every kind of task. Go to Home Depot or Lowes and you can take a free workshop for DIY projects. I’m pretty handy, I’ve painted a house inside and out, I can do simple plumbing and electrical repairs, I can change a tire or headlight bulb and I like doing those sorts of things. There are some diehard do it yourselfers who also think they can earn God’s love and a place in heaven if they just do enough good stuff or at least more good stuff than bad stuff. As for me, I know my DIY skills are not sufficient to restore the broken relationship with God. So when it comes to DIY religion I say nah.

Now, if we really wanted to go the DIY route to eternity there are plenty of religions out there that we can work our lives out in - just Google work based religions and you’ll find plenty to choose from. Interesting, that some of these have standards that seem so high you’ll never make it to their idea of heaven. In that case you can choose one that doesn’t have a heaven. Wait - work really hard and still possibly fall short or work really hard for absolutely nothing - neither of those sound particularly good to me, how do they sound to you?

In my study and research only Christianity is not suited for the do it yourselfer. God gets that we are not capable of living up to His standards on our own (remember in the beginning there was only one rule and Adam and Eve couldn’t follow it) and He understands we can’t restore the broken relationship and enter His kingdom by our own self help programs. So He’s taken care of it for all of us by sending His Son Jesus - to do the work, to pay the price, to restore the relationship and open the doors to the throne room of heaven. “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:22-24).

In Christ Jesus we have been given an extravagant gift that we could never have earned, “not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace…” (2 Timothy 1:9). DIY religion? Nah. 

This week accept God’s extravagant gift of grace and scratch saving yourself off of your to-do list. 

A Prayer
Father - thank you for the gift of Your Son, a gift that gives us forgiveness, grace, favor and an eternity to look forward to. Forgive us for the times when we try to get back to you under our own power, leaving your gift on the shelf and just managing to muck the situation up even more. When it comes to living for you, help us to set aside our DIY mindset and rely fully on You. In the name Jesus, we pray - Amen.